FANTA C

by Sandra Brown

  He smiled. He had very nice teeth, she noticed. Straight and white. "You're welcome. Please call me Thad, though."

  Again she saw herself mirrored in his eyes. Her hair was disheveled, framing her face with fine, pale tendrils. Her blouse was hopelessly dirty and there was a smudge of grime on her chin. She looked frightful and had made a complete fool out of herself. No doubt he would enjoy telling all his buddies the story of the nutty widow who lived in the house behind his. When he got to the part about her petticoat and what Matt had said, he'd smile lecherously, intimating that the tale only got better from there, but discretion prevented him from telling all.

  "Come along, children," she said as briskly as an English nanny rounding up her charges. "It's getting dark. Time we went inside. Matt, please put the ladder back in the garage."

  "Why do I have to?" he whined. "I got the ladder out. Make Megan put it up."

  "I'm taking care of Baby," Megan protested. "It's my turn to take care of Baby. You think she's your kitten, but she's not."

  "I asked if we could have her."

  "Yeah, but she's mine too."

  "Mostly mine."

  "Uh-huh! She belongs to both of us, doesn't she, Mom?"

  Elizabeth had come to expect this kind of squabbling, and usually tuned it out. Tonight, however, it clipped the tenuous threads of her patience.

  "Will you both stop bickering and do as I say?" As if getting herself caught in a tree weren't enough, her children chose now to behave their worst in front of the neighbor.

  "Before you go inside, I'd like to show you something."

  All three turned at the sound of Thad Randolph's peacemaking voice. "In my garage." He smiled at Elizabeth. "Something the kids will enjoy seeing."

  "The puppies?" Megan asked in a hushed voice. "Did they get borned?"

  "Last night. Four of them."

  "Oh, Mom, can we go see them?"

  Elizabeth was helplessly trapped. While she appreciated Thad's conciliatory gesture, she also resented his interference in a family squabble. But for her to refuse to let her children see the litter would be unthinkable. Not even moms could be that cruel. "You can see them as soon as you take the ladder back into the garage." There. She hadn't surrendered unconditionally.

  Matt dashed off, ladder in tow. Unbelievably Megan went with him and held the door open.

  "You don't mind, do you?"

  Elizabeth turned toward Thad. "Of course not. They've been telling me that your setter was about to have her puppies." Until now she had never realized how tall he was. The top of her head didn't quite reach his chin. "I just hope they don't upset the new mother."

  "Penny is the most docile dog I've ever had. And she adores your children."

  Elizabeth clasped her hands at her waist, an unconscious nervous gesture. "They don't disturb you, do they? It seems as if they're always in your yard. I've told them to stay out of it, but—"

  "They don't bother me at all. In fact, I get a kick out of watching them play."

  A thousand questions flocked to her mind – did he have any children of his own? If not, why not? If he did, were they living with his ex-wife? Was there an ex-wife? Or was he, like herself, widowed?

  Even if she'd had the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity and ask such personal questions, she wouldn't have. But she didn't have the opportunity. Matt and Megan came racing back, breathless, eyes alight, their cheeks ruddy with excitement.

  "I put Baby in the house in case she did something to scare the puppies," Megan said.

  "Let's go."

  Thad turned in the direction of his detached garage. All the houses on the block had been built in the thirties. It had become fashionable about ten years before for young families to buy these houses and renovate them, as John and Elizabeth Burke had done. The two children ran ahead, chasing between the shade trees in the large connecting lots.

  "Be careful not to touch the puppies," Elizabeth called after them. "And come right back."

  "Aren't you coming?" Thad stopped and turned around.

  "I – uh – was I supposed to?" she stammered. "I mean, did you want me to?"

  "Sure. Come on. Who could resist looking at a litter of puppies?"

  And what woman could resist his eyes, Elizabeth asked herself.

  He extended his hand, but she didn't take it. She did, however, fall into step beside him, surreptitiously tucking fugitive strands of hair back into the slipping knot on the back of her head.

  This whole scene had become bizarre. She hadn't put her shoes back on and was still in her stockings. The grass felt damp and cold against the soles of her feet. They'd had the first frost last week and leaves had begun to fall. Occasionally she'd step on one and it would crunch beneath her instep. The sun had slid quickly beneath the horizon. The adjoining backyards were deep in violet shadows. She felt compelled to make conversation, but it was difficult to find a topic they had in common. At last she hit on one.

  "I like the color you painted the trim on your house."

  "Thanks. It took me long enough to paint it all."

  "You've got a lot of trim."

  "And I hate to paint."

  "Luckily the house had been redone when you bought it." He'd been living there six months or so. She couldn't remember exactly when he'd moved in.

  "I wouldn't have bought it otherwise."

  They had reached the back door of his garage. He opened it and stood aside to let her go first. Self-consciously, she squeezed past him through the door. The hem of her skirt brushed against his legs. Cloth dragged against cloth, like a wave reluctant to recede from the shore.

  It was dark inside the garage because the large door facing the street and driveway was closed. Only one dim electric bulb burned over the bed Thad had made for his Irish setter and her litter. It smelled musty and musky inside. Inexplicably, Elizabeth was reminded of her stable fantasy.

  Despite her instructions for them not to touch the puppies for fear the dam wouldn't like it, her children were crawling over the pile of old blankets, petting the new mother and her babies. Elizabeth was afraid that in their excitement Megan and Matt would crush one of the puppies. Again she cautioned them to be careful.

  "They're all right," Thad said. He nudged her elbow with his hand, urging her forward.

  "Can we hold one, Mom? Pleeeeze," Megan begged.

  "I don't know," she replied uncertainly. The setter looked benign enough, but new mothers could be fiercely protective.

  "I don't think Penny will mind. If you're very careful," Thad said.

  Gently each child held one of the tiny pups. They oohed and aahed over them. Elizabeth found herself doing the same. Thad had been right. Who could resist a new puppy?

  "Oh, they are darling, aren't they?" she whispered, kneeling down to get a closer look. The Irish setter, Penny, was basking in their attention and didn't seem to be at all nettled by the children.

  "Want to hold one?"

  Elizabeth looked at Thad from across the pile of old blankets where the new family lay. He was kneeling on one knee, the other was raised and bent. The single light bulb cast one side of his face into shadow and lit individual strands of his hair, particularly the silver ones. He had a well-lived-in face, but it was handsome and strong. His face said that he was a man of high integrity and steadfast conviction. He wouldn't provoke a fight, but he would find it untenable to turn the other cheek.

  There were traces of pain in his features. And sensitivity. And sensuality. Especially around his beautifully fashioned mouth. It was saved from being pretty by the vertical grooves parenthesizing it. The rest of him was uncompromisingly male.

  Elizabeth's chest grew full and heavy. Her mouth went dry. In answer to his question, she nodded. Very gently, he scooped one of the puppies in his large hand and lifted it away from its mother's teat. The puppy protested with a querulous squeak that caused them all to laugh. Thad laid the soft, warm ball into the bowl of Elizabeth's waiting hands.

  She raised the puppy
to her cheek and rubbed it against her skin. "He is— It is a he, isn't it?"

  Chuckling, Thad nodded. "I think so. Three males, one female."

  "You can tell by looking at their bellies," Matt said, puffed up with his superior knowledge on the subject. "The boys have penises."

  "Oh, gross!" Megan shivered. She lifted the puppy she was holding over her head and glanced at its underside. Satisfied that she was holding the female, she continued to hug it gently.

  Elizabeth cleared her throat loudly. She could feel Thad's laughing eyes on her. "He's so soft," she murmured, still allowing the puppy to root against her cheek.

  "Do you like 'em, Mom?" Matt asked.

  "Of course I do. They're beautiful."

  "Can we have one?"

  "Matthew!" Hadn't she taught her child better manners than that?

  "Please?"

  "Can we, Mom?" Megan chimed in.

  "No."

  "How come?"

  "Because we just got Baby. No more pets."

  "We'll take care of it, honest."

  "I said no."

  "But, Mom—"

  "Whoa, Matt," Thad interrupted. "The litter is already spoken for."

  "All of 'em?" the boy asked mournfully.

  "Yep. Sorry, friend."

  "That's okay," Matt mumbled, keeping his head down.

  Thad placed his finger beneath the dejected chin and tilted it up. "Maybe by the time Penny has another litter, we'll have your mom talked into you having one, okay?"

  The boy's face brightened. "Okay!" He returned the puppy he was holding to its mother. "I'm going to tell Tim that I got to see the puppies first and that the next time Penny has babies, I'm getting one. He couldn't wait to lord that over his best friend.

  "Wait for me." Megan returned the female pup to its mother and they both ran for the door to the garage.

  "Watch for cars when you cross the street," Elizabeth called. "And be home in five minutes. It's time for dinner."

  "Okay, Mom." The door slammed shut behind them.

  Elizabeth looked at Thad and smiled helplessly. "Where did I go wrong?"

  He laughed at her chagrin. "You haven't gone wrong. They're great kids. Just energetic." Still smiling, he stroked Penny's head. The dog worshipfully licked the back of his hand.

  The slamming door had had the impact of a thunderbolt, leaving a vibrating silence in its place. The garage suddenly seemed a private, intimate enclosure. The stillness made Elizabeth feel awkward. Except for a few words exchanged at a distance, she'd just met this man. Being alone with him was unsettling.

  "I'd better get home and start dinner." Leaning forward, she laid the puppy close to its mother. He nuzzled and found an available place at which to nurse.

  As Elizabeth withdrew her hands, Thad surprised her by reaching across the dam and her litter and grasping them. He turned her palms up toward the light. "What did you do to your hands?"

  The shock of his touch almost cost her the power of speech. "The tree. I scraped them on the bark," she finally choked out.

  "As soon as you get home, you'd better wash them in a disinfectant soap and put some ointment on them."

  "Yes, I will."

  His lips twisted into a lopsided grin of self-derision. "Who am I to give first-aid advice to a mother of two, huh?"

  She smiled in return, but disengaged her hands, hopefully without appearing to be in a hurry to. But she was. She barely curbed the impulse to fold her arms across her chest and tuck her hands into her armpits, as though ashamed of them for committing some grievous transgression. They were tingling and it wasn't entirely from having been scraped on the tree.

  He stood up when she did and together they walked toward the door. "I didn't know you had a motorcycle," she observed, grateful at a chance to break the silence. A motorcycle was parked in one half of the double garage.

  "Yeah, I bought it when I got back from Nam. I don't have time to ride it much, mostly on weekends, but I enjoy it."

  Nam? Had he been a soldier? "You don't seem the type for a motorcycle."

  He paused with his hand on the doorknob. "The type? You're not one of those ultraconservatives who thinks that anyone sitting astride a motorcycle is degenerate, are you?"

  "Of course not."

  "Good. Maybe you can go riding with me sometime. If you'd like to."

  "Oh, I don't think so," she said quickly, looking dubiously at the cycle. "I don't think I'd like sitting astride. A motorcycle."

  There was enough time and space between her two sentences to let inquisitiveness dawn and mature in his eyes. For a moment that blue gaze held hers. "Don't knock it till you've tried it."

  Studying his face, she gauged his intention and decided that if his words carried a double meaning, she was better off ignoring it. "The children will be looking for me," she said uncomfortably.

  He held open the door. She stepped through it into the evening air, which had become chilly. But she welcomed the bracing cold. It helped clear her head. She hugged herself for warmth, and also to prevent him from seeing her nipples. They were erect beneath her blouse. If he noticed that, he'd think—

  "I like all that lacy junk you wear under your clothes."

  "What?" Stumbling in the damp grass, she spun around.

  He was smiling disarmingly. "I don't think it's junk. I was only quoting Matt." He looked her up and down in the arrogant, possessive, masculine manner that Adam had first used in the Garden of Eden and that no amount of legislation was ever going to outlaw. "Unisex clothing they can keep. I enjoy looking at a woman who dresses like one."

  "Thank you."

  "Do you always wear soft things?" he asked, nodding down toward her blouse and the nipples that were tenting it.

  She moistened her lips with her tongue. "I like wearing feminine clothes. Besides that, it's good for my business."

  "That's right, you sell lingerie in your shop, don't you?" At her surprised expression, he explained, "One day when I was in the Cavanaugh, I saw you through the window of Fantasy."

  "Oh."

  Her first reaction was surprise that he knew about her business. The next was to wonder what had brought him to the Hotel Cavanaugh. The third was to chide herself for being so naive.

  Scores of discreet affairs went on in the well-appointed rooms every day. Why else would a man as attractive as Thad Randolph be walking across the lobby of the Hotel Cavanaugh in the middle of the day? And it had to have been during the day because she wasn't open late. The hotel restaurants were good, but there were others in the city that were just as good and less expensive for lunch. Chances were that he'd gone to the hotel to satisfy another appetite.

  "Before I knew the name of your shop, I'd always wondered what significance your license plate had."

  "My sister's idea," Elizabeth told him absently.

  Had the woman he'd met at the Cavanaugh been hired for the afternoon? Or was she a housewife hopelessly in love with the wrong man? Or a career woman looking for kicks to relieve the pressure of her job?

  What difference did it make to her? Piqued at her own curiosity, she said, "The next time you're in the hotel, drop in and say hello."

  "Thanks. I will. I might even buy something. Your merchandise looked ... interesting."

  Was it a trick of the wavering shadows or did his eyes move down to her breasts once more?

  "Well, thanks again for helping me out of the tree."

  "My pleasure."

  Again, his words caused a warm tide to spill through her. For that very reason she gave him a verbal cold shoulder. "Good night, Mr. Randolph."

  "Good night, Elizabeth."

  He had deliberately used her first name after she'd avoided using his. Nodding brusquely, she quickly crossed his yard into her own. At the sycamore, she retrieved her shoes but didn't even pause to put them on as she made her way toward her back door. Only when it was safely closed behind her did she breathe a sigh of relief. But the respite didn't last long. She heard her children coming
through the front door.

  "Mom?"

  "In here." She dropped her shoes on the floor and padded toward the refrigerator. Thank goodness Mrs. Alder had remembered to take a pound of ground chuck out of the freezer. It was thawed.

  "What's for supper?" Megan asked as she came through the door connecting the kitchen to the rest of the house.

  "Hamburgers."

  "Can I light the grill this time?" Matt asked.